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Codex Interview RPG Codex Interview: Chris Bischoff on Beautiful Desolation

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Tags: Beautiful Desolation; Chris Bischoff; The Brotherhood

We’ve always had a soft spot for adventure games here on the Codex. Indeed, I like to think that our Adventure Gaming board is one of the top adventure game forums on the Internet, and there's a small group of independent adventure game developers who are long-time friends of the site. Among them is Chris Bischoff AKA Pyke, a South African game designer of many talents who alongside his brother Nic is responsible for 2015's sci-fi horror adventure Stasis and its standalone expansion Cayne. Their latest creation, out today on Steam and GOG, is the colorful post-apocalyptic adventure Beautiful Desolation. We interviewed Chris about Stasis back in 2013 and it's only natural that we should do so again for Beautiful Desolation, which features a distinctly RPG-inspired aesthetic and even has a combat system. So without further ado:

To start things off, let’s assume we haven’t read anything about Beautiful Desolation. Tell us about the game’s setting. What year does it take place? What planet is it set on? Who are these two brothers and what are they doing there?

Beautiful Desolation is an adventure game set in the distant future - starting in the late 1970s, when a monolith of unknown origin - the Penrose - appeared in the skies of Cape Town, South Africa. This sends the world on an alternate path of technological growth, development, and eventual war.

The arrival of the Penrose resulted in the death of Mark Leslie's fiancé, later he pulls his brother into the mystery and his search for answers. Trying to figure out just what the Penrose is, who (if anyone) is responsible for its sudden arrival and disruption of the world.

In general, how would you characterize Beautiful Desolation’s puzzle design? You’ve probably got an entire puzzle design philosophy that you’ve developed over the years. Can you share it with us?

Early on we set up 3 pillars of the game – story, character, and exploration - and all of our choices had to support these three pillars. As long as the puzzles worked within that framework we knew that they’d feel connected in the game world.

We were heavily inspired by Star Control 2’s integration of the story and puzzles, and how the idea of holy relics drove their narrative forward.

Because Beautiful Desolation is more opened ended and nonlinear, we modified the more traditional ‘lock and key’ puzzle design to fit into a game where you can find any door and any key, in any order. So, in this game we focused on characters and their stories in the world and tried to ensure the puzzles revealed the story – rather than the puzzles blocking the player’s path forward.

Beautiful Desolation is an adventure game, but it’s clearly been influenced by the RPG genre. It’s got that isometric camera, a combat system, and most recently you revealed some Fallout-esque dialogue screens. This is the RPG Codex, so we obviously have to get all the details about that. What other RPG-inspired features does the game have? Why did you choose to go in this direction, and which RPGs specifically have you been inspired by?

Structurally we looked towards 90’s Adventure games and RPGs as a reference for an open world experience but with a structured story. Steering away from the linear adventure game format, we wanted Beautiful Desolation to be a game that could be replayed. In addition, something that would ensure that every player could have a unique playing experience - that they couldn't get from watching someone else play.

When we chose Character as one of our pillars of the game, it was a natural progression to add in dialogue trees. But how we hoped to change it up – to avoid a regular list of dialogue options that you can return to – was by focusing on a natural conversation flow. Our characters react not only to what you say to them, but how you say it.

I think there is a lot of room to expand ideas in the adventure game genre. What a great way to tell a story! I’ve enjoyed the world-building the most in this process. I’ve recently begun playing and hosting tabletop games, and to let players loose in these worlds and seeing what they do is so enjoyable. We hope to extend a taste of this with Beautiful Desolation.
Read the full article: RPG Codex Interview: Chris Bischoff on Beautiful Desolation
 
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luj1

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Looks interesting. I remember checking this game out at some point, but it looked way different or so I've felt. I'm particularly interested in that intriguing UI.

Anyway, I'm glad that this game has combat so we can call it an RPG.
 

lukaszek

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deterministic system > RNG
 
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Infinitron

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97,109
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth

Alpan

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Grab the Codex by the pussy Pathfinder: Wrath
Infinitron said:
... with Daedalic all but gone ...

Did this happen, and when? What did I miss?

Try to remember when they last released a classic point & click. Memoria and the Deponia trilogy were a long time ago, man: https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.p...e-game-news-thread.57865/page-50#post-5503757

And now they're fucked in general too: https://wccftech.com/daedalic-entertainment-hit-hard-lord-of-the-rings-gollum-trouble/

There's Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth released in 2017, though I only know about this game because I picked it up recently. I haven't yet played it and don't know how classic it is. It's sad to hear they are having financial troubles.
 

Pyke

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Pyke, this was an instant BUY from me (the Deluxe GOG version)! Your artwork itself is just, pardon the pun, BEAUTIFUL!!

Thanks! I put a lot of work into the art book - it does have some spoilers - but I'd love to hear what you think about it when you get a chance to browse!

Also, Micks music is phenomenal. It's just... so damned good.
 

Paul_cz

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This game looks great. Looking forward to reading some impressions. Almost 4 years in dev? Damn.
 

Jedi Exile

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Congrats with releasing your game! I'll buy it today and definitely check it out when I've played other games on my list (which were released in previous years lol).
 

jac8awol

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This looks good! I'll pick it up as soon as I'm in an adventure mood again (got let Disco wear off a bit). Lol at the negative review on steam complaining about 'fok off' as a dialogue response. Hulle moenie verstaan nie, boet...
 

Tao

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I just brought iit, deluxe edition. This weekend ill play it. Congrats for the release
 

luj1

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Upon a closer look it reminds me of Disco Elysium, but better. Lighter on walls of text and has actual combat.
 

Xzylvador

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Divinity: Original Sin 2 Bubbles In Memoria A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pathfinder: Kingmaker Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture
Loved STASIS but wasn't really following the devs anymore... Awesome, thanks for this news, I'd have completely missed it.
Bought myself the BROTHERHOOD DELUXE MEGA BUNDLE despite the godawful name.
 

Jedi Exile

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Project: Eternity Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Played the game a bit, it looks great :greatjob:
 

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